Electronic business rules

In keeping with the Electronic Transaction Act 1999, we provide you the option of using electronic communications when engaging with us.

Making payments to us

You can make payments with us by:

• Credit card (Visa and MasterCard via our Online Services, phone, fax or post)
• Direct debit - Account customers (sales documents only)
• Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)
• Cheques
• Money orders

If you would like to pay by EFT payment at the bank or via the internet, you must fill out an EFT form. It is your responsibility to include a reference number of up to 18 characters. We prefer that you quote your application or registration number/s in your reference where possible. If using EFT please ensure you send us the EFT form as failure to do so may affect your IP right. The date of your transaction will be the date that money arrives in our account not the date you undertake the transfer. This can be up to 10 working days, so please ensure you allow sufficient time for this method of payment.

A Payment Options Form must be included when faxing or posting credit card payments, cheques or money orders.

You can be assured that appropriate security and handling mechanisms are in place to protect your credit card details.

Electronic Funds Transfer Form PDF [   154 KB]

Payments Options Form PDF [  72 KB]

Buying from IP Australia

As a business customer of IP Australia you may wish to know more about the following:

Determining fees and charges

How to pay us:

• EFTPOS
• Credit Card
• Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)
• Accounts for selected services
• Cash/Cheque/Money order

Determining fees and charges

Payment may be made for online applications or requests either at the time of filing or at a later date. Certain transactions made using other means (i.e. not online) still need to be paid for at the time of filing. You can determine the fees payable in respect of your application, by looking at the fee schedule for patents, trade marks or designs and the list of other charges, or by using our fee calculator.  If during processing of your application the fee items used in the calculation are found to be incorrect, the fee payable is recalculated using the correct fee items. This may result in a letter of notification being sent (underpayments) or refund processed (overpayments).

EFTPOS

EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale) is available for all our products and services, using your bank debit card and PIN number. EFTPOS facilities are available at each of our IP Lodgement Points for over the counter transactions. A lower limit of $10 applies to EFTPOS transactions. The upper limit is determined by your bank balance and bank's individual policy. There is no cash out facility provided.

Credit Card

Credit card is available for all our products and services, including the payment of sundry debtor accounts. Cards accepted are Bankcard, Visa and MasterCard. A lower limit of $10 applies for all credit card transactions. An upper limit of $100,000 applies for all credit card transactions.

Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)

Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) is available for all our products and services. Transfer of funds is made from your bank account into our bank account. EFT payments must be initiated from your financial institution. Once the EFT payment has been received, we will match it to your IP transaction. To protect your interests, the completed EFT transaction details notice should be faxed to our secure fax line on (02) 6283 7999.

Payment on Account

Payment may be made on account for non-IP transactions such as copies of patent specifications and journal subscriptions. Items are charged to your customer account which you pay on a monthly basis. You may request an account at any of our IP Lodgement Points where staff will take your details and arrange the processing. Alternatively, complete the application for credit form and mail or fax it to us on (02) 6283 7999. Once your account is established, you will be able to charge all general (non-IP) items. Invoices are sent monthly with statements. Payment terms are strictly 30 days.

Cash/ cheque/ money order

Cash, cheque or money orders are accepted for all our products and services.  Cash payments may be made in person at any of the IP Lodgement Points, and must be made in Australian dollars. Cheque or money order payments may be made in person at any of the IP Lodgement Points, or through the mail. Both personal and bank cheques are accepted and must be marked 'not negotiable'. Cheques must be made out in Australian dollars and originate from an Australian bank. Personal cheques are receipted on the day of the transaction but are subject to 5 days clearance. Dishonoured cheques do not constitute payment.

Electronic correspondence

Fax

When you fax a request to us, please ensure that you fax your request once only. Faxes do not need to be accompanied by a paper copy or "confirmation copy".  Doing so may result in a duplicate payment being processed. If you need to split your transmission as a result of page restriction limits, ensure you identify the second batch of documents as following on from part 1.

Receipt of a fax is taken to be the date and time the entire fax enters our information system at the Central Office. The date and time of receipt is based on Australian Eastern Standard/Daylight Savings Time (AEST/AEDT) when the final page of the fax is received.
 

Email

All email correspondence must be directed to assist@ipaustralia.gov.au. Please be mindful when contacting us that email is an unsecure method of communication. If you are not concerned with who may read the details in your email, then email may be the quickest and most convenient way to communicate with us.

Receipt of an email is taken to be the date and time the entire email first enters our information system at the Central Office. It is not the time or the date the email is sent, or the local time or date in the sender's location. The date and time of receipt is based on Australian Eastern Standard/Daylight Time (AEST/AEDT).

Online correspondence

Trade marks

This table shows the ways that we can receive requests for trade marks.

• Accepted image file types are TIFF (.tif), BMP (.bmp), PNG (.png), JPEG (.jpeg) and GIF (.gif). Note that animated GIF files are not accepted.
• Please ensure there are no spaces in the file name.
• Recommended minimum image size is 227 x 227 pixels to ensure the features of the trade mark can be clearly identified.
• If you are submitting a series of marks, these must be zipped in a single file.  If it is important that the files are presented in a specific order, the file names must begin with a number indicating the sequence.
• File attachments must be limited to a maximum of 100Mb (or less for slow connections) to allow for upload and conversion of the image.
• Sound and moving image file formats are not currently supported.  For more information about these applications, please contact our Customer Service Centre on 1300 65 10 10.
• Opposition correspondence accompanying payments can be made via fax, but payments cannot be accepted via e-mail.
• Opposition correspondence in the form of declarations, statutory declarations or affidavits may be faxed or e-mailed, but the originals must be mailed to the office.

Patents

This table shows the ways that we can receive requests for patents.

• Text can be entered into the patents form fields up to a limit of 3500 characters per field.
• Accepted file attachment types are TIFF (.tif),  JPEG (.jpeg), Adobe Acrobat PDF (.pdf) and Text (.txt)
• PDF attachments must be compatible to at least Adobe Acrobat v6.0 to ensure general accessibility.
• Images must not be in colour.
• File attachments must be limited to 100mb in size.
• Any data exceeding 1000 pages or 100mb in size must be sent to us as physical media (DVD, CD, USB or Paper).  However it must be noted that where a patent application is filed only partly via the our website or fax and other components of the application are filed via paper or physical media (eg CD Rom), and these components are received by us on different days, the filing date will be determined as follows:
• If the part received first is sufficient to establish a filing date, then the application will be initially allocated a filing date of the date the first part was received.  The subsequently received physical media may be included; if it changes the scope, it falls under additional information. The applicant must file the additional information within 2 months of the filing date or, if advised by the office that it is missing, 2 months from the date of the letter from the office.
• If the online application is deemed incomplete, the filing date will be the date of receipt of any missing component.

Plant Breeder's Rights

This table shows the ways that we can receive requests for plant breeder's rights.

Plant Breeder’s Rights forms are provided in a fillable PDF format which can be emailed, faxed or mailed to us.

This table lists the ways that requests  can be made for Designs.

Designs forms are provided as a PDF which can be faxed or mailed to us.

General

Last Updated: 02/5/2012